Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Food Poverty

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure that people in food poverty have a healthy and balanced diet.

Mark Spencer: The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. We will spend over £242bn through the welfare system in 2022/23 including £108bn on people of working age. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is continuing the work begun by Public Health England to explore options to assess the cost of a healthy balanced diet in response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health, and the Environment report 'Hungry for change: fixing the failures in food' (July 2020). Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those families who need it the most. The three Healthy Food Schemes (Healthy Start, the Nursery Milk Scheme and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme) together help more than three million children. A balanced diet is rich in fruit and vegetables, beans, pulses and wholegrain starchy carbohydrates. It can also include dairy, fish and meat which are valuable sources of many nutrients important for human health. The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the UK's healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide. A study by Scarborough et al (2016) analysed the cost of achieving a diet in line with the Eatwell Guide and concluded that although achieving the UK dietary recommendations would require substantial changes to the current average diet, these changes would not lead to significant changes in the price of the diet. The diet in line with the Eatwell Guide cost £5.99 per adult per day, which was very similar to the cost of the current diet in the UK at £6.02 per adult per day.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Social Rented Housing: Insulation

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will respond to the recommendations of the UK100 report End the Wait. Insulate, published in November 2022 on redeploying government investment in retrofit measures to prioritise a place-based approach to allocating funding.

Graham Stuart: The Autumn Statement announced a new national ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels.In order to support the delivery of this target, a new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established. More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.In the Autumn Statement, the Government also announced £6 billion of new Government funding that will be made available from 2025 to 2028 for energy efficiency.

Members: Correspondence

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for North Durham of 16 August 2021 on Ultra Electronics.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Rt hon. Member on 30 December 2022 about Ultra Electronics.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Somalia: Travel Information

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will update her Department's travel guidance for Somalia to reflect differences between Somaliland and Somalia.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO Travel Advice provides information and advice to help British nationals make informed decisions about foreign travel. FCDO Travel Advice provides travellers with updates and information, including the latest advice on issues such as coronavirus, safety and security, entry requirements and travel warnings. Area-specific advice reflecting differences across Somalia, including in relation to travel to Somaliland, is contained within the FCDO travel advice.

Development Aid

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to promote civic links between organisations in the UK and those in countries where UKaid funds programmes.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Civil society is critical for development, humanitarian and foreign policy outcomes. Encouraging international civic links is key to supporting civil society and more open, freer societies around the globe. The FCDO promotes these links in a range of ways, including through Ministerial visits, diplomatic activity and programme funding. For example, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy promotes new ways of engaging internationally, working with parliaments, political parties and civil society. Many of our UK civil society grant holders under UK Aid Direct and UK Aid Match also work in close partnership with civil society organisations overseas.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Official Gifts

Lee Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many diplomatic gifts have been given in each of the last three years, by recipient country.

Lee Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the total value of diplomatic gifts is over the last three years, by recipient country.

David Rutley: The FCDO fulfils the requirement, established since 2010, for government departments to publish transparency data in line with the Ministerial Code. The full set of FCDO published transparency returns, which include ministerial gifts (since the department's formation in September 2020), can be found at: FCDO: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).Pre-merger transparency data for FCO diplomatic ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings to October 2020 can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/minister-data#full-publication-update-history and FCDO data since October 2020 FCDO: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fcdo-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetingsIt is recognised across HMG that the exchange of gifts and hospitality has long been an important part of building relations, particularly overseas. Purchases undergo rigorous oversight to ensure all gifts and hospitality given are appropriate, proportionate and open, recorded in line with guidance and that staff undertake mandatory anti-corruption training while delivering best value to the taxpayer.

Iran: Guided Weapons

Tom Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent reports he has received on Hezbollah's reported acquisition of precision-guided missiles from Iran.

David Rutley: It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Iran's political, financial and military support to a number of militant groups, including Hizballah in Lebanon is unacceptable. We work closely with our partners to deter destabilising Iranian activity in the region, including through a range of sanctions designations.

Department of Health and Social Care

Social Services: Pay

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to increase the pay of people in the social care sector; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing pay in the social care sector on staff (a) recruitment and (b) retention.

Helen Whately: The Department currently has no plans to intervene in pay levels in the adult social care sector. No assessment has been made of the specific impact of increasing pay on recruitment and retention in the sector. Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who set their pay and terms and conditions, independent of central government.

Cancer: Health Services

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is making to ensure there is sufficient infrastructure in Cancer Alliances to help deliver minimally invasive cancer therapies across England.

Helen Whately: NHS England’s specialised commissioning team have been undertaking work to expand the number of providers offering minimally invasive cancer therapies, such as selective internal radiation therapy. The market engagement and Prior Information Notices have now been completed, with regional teams now putting in place the necessary contractual arrangements with National Health Service trusts. This work is also being completed ahead of the delegation of commissioning responsibilities to integrated care boards.

Cancer: Health Education

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken since the publication of the Women’s Health Strategy to improve education on cancers for (a) women and (b) girls.

Helen Whately: The ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign addresses the barriers which may deter patients from seeking advice from the National Health Service. The current campaign focuses on abdominal and urological symptoms and aims to raise awareness of gynaecological cancers.

Radiotherapy

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 July 2022 to Question 26865 on Cancer: Medical Treatments, what recent progress his Department has made on completing the Prior Information Notice and market engagement exercise on the use of selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT).

Helen Whately: Ten National Health Service trusts are currently commissioned to provide selective internal radiation therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer. Following publication of Technology Appraisal 688 by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, seven of the 10 trusts confirmed interest in also treating hepatocellular carcinoma. This is now expected to rise to around 15 trusts, following completion of a market engagement and Prior Information Notice process.

NHS: ICT

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made as to the time lost by medical professionals in the NHS as a result of any inefficiencies in the IT systems.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. However, in June 2022, we set out our plans in ‘A Plan for Digital Health and Care’ to improve tech efficiency and efficacy in the National Health Service. This includes £2 billion to digitise the NHS and at least £150 million to support digital transformation in social care, including crucial cyber security and connectivity foundations. By March 2025, constituent organisations of an integrated care system should have, met a minimum level of digital maturity as set out in the ‘What Good Looks Like’ framework, established digital, data and technology talent pipelines and improved digital literacy among leaders and the workforce and ensured all health and social care settings have the right infrastructure and connectivity to work digitally.

Treasury

Business: VAT

John Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the (a) average and (b) maximum time between initial registration and the opening of a new business VAT account in 2022.

John Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the time taken to process applications for new business VAT accounts.

Victoria Atkins: In July 2022 HMRC came under a significant attack from VAT registration fraudsters and we saw the number of registrations being sent to HMRC increase to unprecedented levels. To deal with this issue a number of measures were urgently put in place to protect genuine customers and to stop the increase in fraudulent activity. These measures entailed additional security checks that meant that some genuine customers were caught in the new processes to ensure the authenticity of the registration being made. HMRC does understand the frustrations from agents and businesses and are working to ensure all genuine registrations are processed as quickly as possible. Due to the high numbers of new registrations being submitted to HMRC during the summer, we did not always meet our service standard over that time. HMRC aims to turn around most VAT registrations within 40 working days and is currently meeting that service level agreement, although some cases do take longer due to additional compliance checks or complexity. The average time between registration and opening of new business VAT accounts in 2022 so far is 13 days, and the maximum time has been 291 days.